TCM tonight:
8:00 PM -- To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
1h 40m | Drama | TV-PG
A young girl grows up fast when her lawyer father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.
Director: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton
Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Horton Foote, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead and Oliver Emert
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Mary Badham, Best Director -- Robert Mulligan, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Russell Harlan, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Elmer Bernstein, and Best Picture
The first scene that Gregory Peck shot showed him returning home from his character's law office while his children ran to greet him. Author Harper Lee was a guest on the set that day, and Peck noticed her crying after the scene was filmed. He asked Lee why she was crying, and she responded that Peck had looked just like her late father, the model for Atticus. Lee explained that Peck even had a little round stomach like her father's. "That's not a pot belly, Harper," Peck told her, "That's great acting."
10:30 PM -- A Patch of Blue (1965)
1h 45m | Drama | TV-PG
A blind white girl falls in love with a black man.
Director: Guy Green
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman